ASD plans to entice high-performance teachers with salaries, bonuses

A teacher fresh out of college can hope to earn a $62,500 salary in the Achievement School District six years after signing on, according to the new pay schedule the ASD is rolling out this fall.

Not only is that $16,000 more than the county schools pay a teacher with the same experience, it doesn't include the annual cash bonus every ASD teacher has a shot at earning.

In the best-performing schools, bonus pay will be as high as $7,000. Every teacher on the team will get the bonus, including master teachers already earning salaries of more than $80,000.

The statewide district has the authority to move into schools where scores on standardized tests are in the bottom 5 percent statewide. The goal is to take the schools to the top 25 percent in five years. This year, six Memphis schools are assigned to the ASD. Next year, there will be 12.

"Last July, amid the craziness of startup, we talked to our teachers about the guiding principles of meaningful pay," said Ash Solar, ASD chief talent officer. "We spent the last four months building a system that reflects their priorities."

It means teachers will not be paid for seniority or advanced degrees but for how well their students do on standardized tests and what the principal sees happening in the classroom.

"We tied everything to student results and teacher performance," Solar said. "Every effective teacher gets a raise, period. How much that raise is will be based on performance and pathway."

New teachers starting at $40,000 will get a $2,500 bump after the first year for scoring at the top of the performance charts. From there, they add $5,000 every time they move to a higher pay band.

The best teachers in the school may work part-time in the classroom and get a $10,000 annual stipend for working as a school's curriculum and instruction administrator.

"We have built this compensation structure toward the goal of being the best place to work," Solar said. "If teachers are at a fork in the road, and are wondering if this is good or bad, we have built this system to be good."

ASD teachers earn an average $49,747, $6,000 less than the average for Memphis City Schools teachers, a difference that will save the ASD $240,000 in payroll this year.

Solar says the model does not force ASD principals to hire predominantly novice teachers. (This year about 20 percent of the staff are Teach for America corpsmen in their first year in the classroom.)

"This is where school autonomy matters. If you as a school think the best thing to do is have the best teachers and they cost the most, you have to figure trade-offs in your program," he said.

Marguerite Roza, associate professor at Georgetown University, says the ASD plan is based on hiring strong teachers from the start, and as a result, needing fewer "adults in the building. "A lot of times in schools where kids aren't doing well, we layer programs on," she said.

"What if we rebuilt schools in a way that wouldn't need all these extra programs or as many," she asked. "Our country has gone the route of hiring more people over the years. We don't have much to show for that."

The pay schedule applies to teachers only in ASD schools the state is running. It does not cover teachers working with the ASD's charter partners.

The unified district for Memphis and Shelby County is working on its own pay structure. Early reports suggest starting pay will range from $41,000 to $44,000, depending on a teacher's experience. The district will pay teachers for three years' experience, down from ten in the past, and likely will base raises on performance.

"Different districts around the country are trying to figure out how to unlock salary money in a way that gives better outcomes for students, leveraging that effective teaching is what will turn it around," Roza said.